Posted on February 11, 2009 by Tsukuba Square Dance Club
Tsukuba Square Dance Club offers an American Square Dance beginners’ class from April to July every year. Square dancing is a lot of fun, involving both rhythmic movement and a bit of puzzle-like brain work. It was originally an American folk dance, but in the last 30 years it has been considerably altered to its modern form, which is now quite popular all over Japan, as well as in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia.
Come on and join the class!!
* Dates: March 14 to 28, 2009 (Free Trial Classes), April 4 to July 25, 2009 (Beginners’ Class)
* Time: Saturday evenings from 7pm to 9pm
* Location: Takezono Community Center (beside Takezono Shopping Center)
* Fee: FREE in March; 2,000 yen for April to July
* Bring: Indoor-only shoes
During the class you will learn all of the steps at the “Basic” level. If you come to a majority of the classes and learn the steps, you will get an official graduation certificate in July!
Plus is quite complicated and it involves (1) stringing a lot of Basic and Mainstream steps together and (2) remembering where you are in the formation at any given time. Before I started learning Plus, one of the members of my club advised me to study the steps before I come to class. He said that while you can learn the Mainstream steps fairly easily by attending the classes and reviewing the steps often in class, you will be able to learn how to dance the Plus steps a lot better if you do some preparation at home before you come to the class. I have found this to be very valuable advice. I have been watching the above videos and reading “The Illustrated Plus Movements of Square Dancing” before my Plus lessons and I find that it is helping me to remember the moves. I am still having trouble with “Follow Your Neighbour” and “Spin Chain the Gears”, but hopefully practice (and watching the above videos) will make perfect!
